The vernal equinox is a national holiday here (exactly like the one in autumn), and because I chose to work on that day, I received a day off that I had to consume in April in return. So I took last week Monday off, and not to be too bored over my long weekend, I went to have a look at Niigata...Niigata lies on the shores of the Japanese sea (where North Korea has been vigorously shooting its missiles recently :D), about 300 km north of Tokyo. It's a city of about 800 000 people, and even though it's not a famous tourist spot (my guidebook has about 2-3 pages about it), it's quite close, and one can get there really fast, so I thought it'd be an excellent target for a long weekend. And it's famous for its rice production and the sake that's produced from it. ;)There is a shinkansen (bullet train) line that goes there too, right across the mountains, and it gets there in about 2 hours. I could have chosen to go by regular train, or bus, which would have been considerably cheaper, but this way I spared myself some 8 hours of travel time. And well... I've had a lot more chances to travel by bus than by shinkansen so far in my life. :)

By the way, thanks to the public transport in Tokyo, I managed to miss my train by a few minutes, so I had to wait about half an hour for the next one. But thanks to that I had some time to take a few shots of the trains. :) By the way, mine was a double-decker. At least now I know they make such shinkansens too...

The way there wasn't too eventful: I relentlessly looked at the scenery and tunnel walls that were escaping quickly from my sight. :D I think the most memorable point was when we stopped at Echigo-Yuzawa, a famous onsen village in the mountains, at about half distance, and it was still covered nicely with snow. I quickly took a few pics of it.

In order to take a few photos of my room, I had to torture my phone quite a bit, but maybe I managed to make ones that can be perceived even by the naked eye. But I think it's easy to see that if I bring a suitcase instead of just my backpack, I'd have had a hard time squeezing myself into the room. :D部屋の写真を撮るために携帯を結構拷問しないといけなかったが、結局何とか目でも見とれる写真もできたかも。とりあえず、リュックだけじゃなく、スーツケースも持っていったら、私自体も部屋に入れるのは必ずのものじゃなかったくらいが見えるはずだね。 :D

What I did there during my stay is a story for another time. Until then, here are some photos from my way there (on my way back home, I was traveling in the evening, so I had no chance to take any photos then):

Many of you have asked me to write about Japan, how's my life here, what's happening to me, etc. That's why I've created this blog, here I'll try to share with all of you every important, unimportant, interesting and boring things that I see / hear / experience here.